Monday 30 May 2011

last petals

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you know what the Japanese say.
the flower turns people's blood crazy.
you said, too, the cherry blossoms were like butterflies
on my skin, making your blood crazy.

a darker flower grows within me now.
you left before it caught you beneath my ribs,
before it turned me into that butterfly,
that you'd kill someday, in your sleep.






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note:
In the Japanese tradition, cherry blossoms are linked both to renewal and death, life joy and madness. And of course, ephemerality. It is said that one who enters a forest of blossoming cherry trees will go mad, because of their unbearable beauty.

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35 comments:

  1. I would think that madness might have many faces. At times, a living hell, at others, a kind of bliss, or blessing.

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  2. 'a darker flower'? what kind of light feeds such a thing?

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  3. Wow. The writing and the photos are so ethereal. I love them both. I never knew the mythology about cherry blossoms.

    -Lola
    http://www.dreaminginafishbowl.blogspot.com

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  4. hello beautiful Roxana, it is wonderful to be on the bridge again in the midst of this flurry of petals, how extravagantly beautiful are these photos, but then I shouldnt be surprised I am on the bridge

    there are not that many cherry trees in my city but I am so privileged that there are three fully grown fully blossomed cherry trees so close to my new high arise apartment, this neighborhood has all I need haha
    and yes Roxana when I went out the othernight to experience their beauty yes the beauty was acute,haha perhaps yes as you say they are so ephemeral
    sending you cherry blossom kisses**
    continue...

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  5. perhaps the beauty can drive you mad because of the vulnerable silk texture of the petals and because they are only their to bare fruit they drop away as the cherries set and isnt this the tragic beauty of the universe we give fruit to continue the beauty of life only to dissolve our own existence

    and your powerful words-

    a darker flower grows within me now you left before it caught you beaneath my ribs,

    in my dream interpretation the flower would represent the vaginal folds as in Georgia Okeef's paintings and he would be caught there to participate in fruit bearing before his existence ends.

    My excellent friend wow thanks for this masterpeice!
    sending you more cherry blossomed kisses......
    and wishing your beautiful spirit so many more springtime tales....

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  6. Une fois que l'on a assisté à ce spectacle (les cerisiers en fleurs) je pense en effet que l'on a vu ce qu'il y avait de plus beau...Bises

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  7. Like the song, "more than words!" Like it very much. Toate bune!

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  8. Oh, what I wouldn't give to fall mad of beauty... That is such a mind blowing way of expressing what Alan Ball meant by "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in".

    And though the American write may have been less profound in expression, and though we tend to romanticize it, there is an intrinsic madness in beauty.

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  9. Where the Youth pined away with desire,
    And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow

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  10. actually it is not madness, it is the state of bliss, the drunkness of fullfillment of the spirit.

    in front of the waves of the dreams through flowery feelings, flows the unconsciousness of the world, revealed even to the untrained eye.

    springs of flowers in the sky!

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  11. "A wise man once said
    A flower is only
    A sexual organ
    Beauty is cruelty
    And evolution
    A wise man once said
    that everything could be explained with mathematics
    He had denied
    His feminine side
    Now where is the wisdom in that?

    I came just as fast as I could
    Through the dirty air
    Of your neighbourhood
    Your name on a grain of rice
    Hangin' around my neck
    And a head like lead

    This is the 21st century
    I heard everything they said
    The Universe demystified
    Chemicals for God
    This is the 21st century
    I heard everything they said

    A wise man once wrote
    That love is only
    An ancient instinct
    For reproduction
    Natural selection
    A wise man once said
    That everything could be explained
    And it's all in the brain

    We lay on a velvet rug
    by the open fire
    She blew air on my eyelids
    I cried "What's it all about?"
    As she kissed my hair
    She said "There, there.."..."
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf1MlhdGQZs&feature=share

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  12. oh,draga,ai reusit-as fi putut sa ma indoiesc vreo clipa?:)pe a treia nici nu mi-o aminteam,este exasperant cum pot trece adesea peste ceea ce ma frapeaza,apoi,cu deosebire.pentru ca am contemplat pe indelete,am trecut prin lupte interioare:),insa aceasta mi se aseaza ,totusi,perfect pe sufletul meu din acest moment.ma gandesc,evident,si la ofelia,si la nebunia aceea frumoasa,cautata atata,pe care ti-o injecteaza florile,Floarea,privirile si gesturile noastre:mai intai pudibonde,nestiutoare,apoi cu un must de disperare in ele,un lapte negru,cum ar spune poetul,in sfarsit ,apoi,ochiul deschis,avid,vederea,insa ramanand,pentru vesnicie,celalalt acoperit,garantand fiintarea,cunoasterea de necunoscut.sangele meu este nebun,intre aceste drumuri de lumina pe care petalele le starnesc in marea cea intunecata

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  13. ach, Prinzessin, eine Welt des Märchens, eine Welt der hohen Sensibilität und Zerbrechlichkeit, eine Welt der Schönheit und der Zartheit. Auch, und hier sieht man es ja deutlich, auch der Mensch kann schön und zart sein wie der Wind, fliessend wie das Wasser, träumend und schwebend in einer anderen Welt...!
    Ach, Prinzessin, ein wundervolles Werk!
    Dir die liebsten Umarmungen und ein zartes Lächeln!
    Renée

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  14. oh, after the dreaming calm of the first two, this maenad!, this call into the promise and warning of such a wild dark!!

    and the poem: such a mingled power and wounding in the lifting of the face toward the other, in the kiss of petals on skin, felt still from so long, from so far....

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  15. i have too much work to do to be getting engaged in yet more thought provoking stuff! lol

    and james complicates it all even further by evoking the spirit of a maenad!

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  16. Now and again, through the prism of suspended dreams, the maiden, crined of bituminous coal, would attract speckles as, heapily, steadfastly, the breeze would direct them earthward.


    Crined: Naturally, i was thinking about "Dans l'épaisseur de ta crinière lourde" from that Baudelaire poem.

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  17. If you hadn't mentioned petals, I might have thought in terms of stars and floating in space. But the mention of petals and the watery swirl of hair made me flash on "The Death of Ophelia" by Millais. Such an arresting almost startling series of images! If this be madness, then let me be crazy...

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  18. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart."
    Helen Keller,
    US blind & deaf educator (1880 - 1968)

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  19. wow, breath-taking and terrifying, equally so! that first picture is divine, the blossoms are like fairy lights. I thought death of The Death of Ophelia too.

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  20. J'ai passé un long moment en immersion dans tes images..:o)
    Et mes mots, pétales éphémères se sont dissout dans l'eau...
    Je t'embrasse tendrement..prend soin de toi..:o)

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  21. Dan, how true this is.





    anon, if only i knew that...




    thank you Lola, so kind of you to come here, i am glad you found something to like.





    dear Madeleine, thank you for your rich comments full of emotions and deep thoughts, wow, the O'Keeffe parallel, i would have never thought of her here... though i have some tulip photos which i wanted to dedicate to her, now you made me remember them, maybe i will post them someday :-)
    but you know, the sakura, the japanese cherries don't bear fruit, they live only for the ephemeral beauty of these flowers... that is a reason cherries are impossibly expensive in Japan, they are not native there :-)

    hugs and kisses, too...

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  22. K'line, voila, tu as tout dit, moi-aussi je le pense :-)
    je t'embrasse de tout coeur et je pense a toi toujours, meme quand tu es silencieuse pour longtemps... impossible d'oublier la petite fee :-)




    Crina, wow ce surpriză, mulţumesc!!! :-)




    Gabriel, sărumâna! :-)




    Natalia, you echo my thoughts, my feelings here, and i also like the quote you shared, i think that somehow sensitive people everywhere feel the same, even if the Japanese, it is true, have a more acute sensitivity for such things...

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  23. second anon, these Blake-lines are wonderful, thank you... perhaps they will match my next post too :-) though don't i need sunflower photos to go with them?




    Flipi, yes, sometimes beauty is so overwhelming, and so pure, that even "the untrained eye" is forced to acknowledge it! Novalis, the german romantic poet, had a special plan of teaching all people how to 'train' their eye so that they might be able to see the hidden poetry and the spiritual truth of each thing...





    third anon, this Marillion song is simply wonderful, i can't have enough of it, and so perfect for this post!!! a thousand thank you...





    Cerasela, mă copleşeşti, cum numai tu o poţi face, un must de disperare, sângele tău nebun, unde găseşti atâta poezie pulsând în fiecare cuvânt?!!! da, Ofelia noastră este aici, unul dintre chipurile ei...

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  24. Renée, Deine Worte haben mich laecheln gemacht, die Wolkenprinzessin spricht mit der Bluetenprinzessin... und am Ende muessen sich die beiden unbedingt umarmen, nicht wahr? :-)
    aber wie schoen Du das gesagt hast, wie schoen: "Mensch kann schön und zart sein wie der Wind, fliessend wie das Wasser, träumend und schwebend in einer anderen Welt" - ja, genau so fuehle ich auch, und ich bin froh, wenn meine Bilder das manchmal zeigen, sichtbar machen koennen...
    Ich sende dir mein zartestes Laecheln zurueck...
    bis sehr bald, meine Liebe...





    James, that you, you like this poem means so much to me, you have no idea... and how could i thank you for using this incredibly wonderful word, maenad, see, others are taken with it too :-)




    swiss, haha, sorry to distract you, but who can resist the word maenad (i mean, resisting my pics is relatively easy compared to that :-)






    Prospero, crined!!! this is so lovely, but i, being a romanian as you might know, have to think of lilies now, because 'crin' means 'lily' in romanian, can you believe that? :-)





    Stickup, you are so right, i did think about Ophelia here, i am a bit obsessed with this myth, and i adore the painting you mention. my ohelia is much darker and menacing, i feel, i should try a colourful one too, someday, i've had this idea for some time now (though i am sure it is not at all original).

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  25. Marion, i am happy you liked them :-) i like the 3rd one best, but i think it is the terrifying one in the series, yes...





    Clo, moi-aussi je t'embrasse, partageons ce silence plein de tendresse, je comprends tres bien...

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  26. "though don't i need sunflower photos to go with them?"

    I was hoping you would send some sunflower photos our way!

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  27. whew --- that unflinching gaze in the last photo!!!

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  28. it's one of my dreams..to be there...........someday...........

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  29. ...moving in teh rhythm of the white shower of the falling petals
    she danced herself to death...

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  30. ffflaneur, yes.





    Mariana, i am so happy you came by! thank you for your nice words!






    vz-nostalgia, welcome on the Bridge and a warm thank you for your poetic comment - is this nostalgia an echo of Tarkovski's?

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  31. Your poem, even without the images, is a masterpiece. Coupled with the images.....I cannot find the right words.

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  32. ah, good thing I stopped by to look at these images again and found your reply. Wonder, if there is another way for folks to know that you replied.

    Tarkovsky... Well, perhaps, partially yes. But even though I love him very much, Nostalgia is more than Tarkovsky. ;-)

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  33. Lydia, words are not needed, no...
    a hug, for you, always.

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  34. Viktor, of course there is a way, if you have a blogger account as you seem to have now, you just have to remember to click on "email follow-up comments to" before publishing the comment.

    yes, much more to Nostalgia than that, the same way there would be, for example, more richness to your comment if accompanied by that thick Slavic accent of yours, that you mention somewhere else :-)
    (which i personally love, generally speaking) - ah, the limitations of blogging and all this virtual communication, somehow i grow weary of them... anyway, i am grateful for this little dialogue, even in this form, so thank you for coming back...

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